Mooloo's struggle with babies and bills

Savvy_sewing

Seaxwyn wrote: »

It's not boring Mooloo! I read your diary with amazement that you keep on top of things and keep your good humour!

I hope your son's issues are just standard teenage bolshiness. Smoking outside is not that serious when you are 15, I'm sure I gave my mum a lot more worries than that.

I suppose that now the age has been raised to 18 I worry. But the worst part of it is who is selling them tobacco? But as I dont smoke I really dont like the idea that my kids are now all smoking. There is a lot of canabis about this area and I am worried that that will be next.
Yesterday my twin2's ex boyfriend was sent to prison for 4 weeks. He dabbles in stuff and I fear that he gets too close to my son and things go from bad to worse. But at least for the next 28 days we should be OK from that influence.

Not sure that I am on top of things sometimes. Thought I had ordered my Tesco delivery for today, and then when I checked my emails its tomorrow I am gettingit. so the supper was a bit bitty. There is literally only one shoulder of lamb left in the freezer, a puff pastry and a loaf of bread.!
I have cooked the last of the bacon, to make my son a BLT for school tomorrow, as I am running out of money this week. (Had to pay the landlord this months rent today.) I should really be paying it at the beginning of the month, but it took a while for the housing people to tell me what I should be paying. Still not happy with that, so I am getting advice tomorrow to see if I can get housing benefit for the girls living with me, Or even the babies maybe being here? Who knows.
I have gathered all I can for tomorrow. Time to put the kettle on and then see what else I can learn on MSE. Looking at the Jamie oliver challenge that has just sprung up.
Liking the Jaffa Cake recipie that was linked from Hypno's thread.
Always meadering once I get on this computer.
My typing skills are getting a bit better thats for sure. My speeds are getting better again. (Just incase I have to change my job, what with the boss man of BHF coming to my humble shop tomorrow. :rotfl: :rotfl: Ah god, clothes, what can I wear ? Hadnt thought of that.. brrNow I will have to think about getting into the ironing pile and seeing what there is thats decent enough to meet someone that earns megga money and heads the shops division of BHF!!! Ah wish I had gone on that diet last month afterall, most of my good clothes are a size 8/10 and I am now battleing at a 12!! And here was I thinking about my choccy egg with my cuppa.!!

Savvy_Sue

I'm just wondering though mooloo if you would do better with voice recognition software rather than typing? If you look on the Techie board you might even find some free stuff to experiment with - it will take a while to get used to but your shoulder might benefit.

Savvy_sewing

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm just wondering though mooloo if you would do better with voice recognition software rather than typing? If you look on the Techie board you might even find some free stuff to experiment with - it will take a while to get used to but your shoulder might benefit.

Ah techie stuff, phobia of techie stuff abit.! you might be right though, it could be worth looking into.
Just about to fill in my passport application, it runs out in 2 weeks. Oops. BF has been keeping my savings for me to pay for it. Will have a look on techie board after I have done that. If I can find my way around to it.!!

Eager_Elephant

Hi Mooloo

I did offer some help a few weeks ago and got a reply but didn't hear anymore from you.

I will try to explain how your HB should be worked out (sorry if I am teaching my mother to suck eggs!) This may be different is your council has already introduced LHA.

Your Housing Benefit for a private tenant is based on a fair rent set by the rent officer so if your monthly rent is say £700, this makes the weekly amount £161.54.
A form will be sent to the Rent Officer which outlines how many people are in the property and how many bedrooms you require for your situation. I would hazard a guess at 1 for you, 1 for your son, 1 for each of your daughters and possible 1 to share for their children making 5 bedrooms. If you have more bedrooms than you require then he will automatically only work out a fair rent on the size of the property you actually need.
He then finds the average of all local properties with the same number of bedrooms and uses that figure to set a fair rent.

So lets say he thinks a fair rent is £650 per month, this means HB has to be calculated on £150. (So already leaving you to find the difference of £11.54)

Once HB have this figure they then have to make deductions for any non-deps in the household, so this will be your two daughters if they are over 18. (no deductions if under this age). If your daughters are both in receipt of Income Support no deduction will be made until they are 25. If they both don't get IS then a deduction may be made for them.

So we should still have the weekly figure above set by the Rent Officer. They then work out your weekly income (note this is only yours so will include earnings, CTC, WTC, CB, maintenance .etc). From your income they also allow disregards if you work and are a single parent .etc.

They also have to calculate an applicable amount which is made up of premiums depending on the household set up (your daughters are not included as they are non-dependents).
Up until 31st March this is £59.15 for you, £45.?? for your son and £16.45 family premium.

They then take your income (less the disregards) and minus off your applicable amount mentioned above.

Of that figure 65% goes towards your rent and 20% to your Council Tax, so if your income was £150pw and your applicable amount was £75.00 then you have excess income of £75pw.
65% of £75.00 is £48.75.

So take your weekly rent from the rent officer of £150pw, minus the £48.75 and your HB would be £101.25 per week.

If you think it has not been worked out correctly then query it.

You might need to question whether they informed the Rent Officer of all the people in the household as this will affect the amount of benefit.
You won't get any help for HB for your daughters apart from them being on the household allows you to receive HB for a bigger property than if it was just your son and you.

If you have any questions please fire away, you can PM me if you want to

EE

Keeping_Motivated

Blimey EE :eek: I'm glad you know what you are talking about because I read through that think 'thank god I'm NOT a rent officer!'

I'm sure that will be a big help to Mooloo and maybe she could print it off to take with her if she has to argue her case.

KM x

Eager_Elephant

It's not as hard as it looks as we have a computer system which does it all!!!

But I like to still be able to do manual calculations, people sometimes ring up for one without making a claim so you have to be on the ball.

EE

FROSTYFRECKLE

Hi Mooloo, I Have Just Spent All Day Reading About Your Battles. You Are Amazing How You Can Keep Going On And On. Your Bf Should Be Immensely Proud To Be Part Of Your Life. Keep On Leaving Updates. I Have No Advice To Give You - Married With No Kids But You Have My Best Wishes.

Savvy_sewing

FROSTYFRECKLE wrote: »

Hi Mooloo, I Have Just Spent All Day Reading About Your Battles. You Are Amazing How You Can Keep Going On And On. Your Bf Should Be Immensely Proud To Be Part Of Your Life. Keep On Leaving Updates. I Have No Advice To Give You - Married With No Kids But You Have My Best Wishes.

Hi Frostyfreckle, thankyou for the praise, but I dont think I really deserve it. I think the support around here is what has helped me. The people all on here are the ones who need praising.! :T
My BF doesnt understand why I post on here, and is not that keen that I do. If he understood how just writing things down on here helps, nevermind the support that is offered, when people come back with thier help, ideas or just the vote of confidence that everyone gives is why I post, maybe he would be more favourable. :cool:
Ah well, he is a great support in other ways. It is very hard when you have two growing families, and have had different upbringings. So tensions rise. I am sure a lot of married/co-habiting people will have it worse than we do.
BF was good enough to let some of us live at his house 2 years ago, when I lost the pub etc. We camped out in his dinningroom for about 10months till I got my own flat. He is still looking after my dog at the moment as well.:T

Now that the babies are growing, and their mums are getting better at being Mums I am able to spend more time with BF and that has really been a godsend to me. I can escape to his for a day or two quite regularly at the moment. Two months ago that was not possible. Live is improving. Although the finances are a little bit of an issue.:j
I shall be getting my calculator out and seeing if I can guestimate what I will have to pay on my rent now, so I am ready with this months budget, when I give my wage slip update to the council.
I treated myself to a hair cut on Friday, £28. But I wanted my passport photo to look reasonable, it has got to be in it for 10years!! My last photo I looked a bit like Dierdre Barlow from Coronation street.!!! I didnt wear my glasses on Saturday when I had my photo taken. :rolleyes: bit vain of me I know.
This month I am working out of a different shop for the first two weeks, so life should be a bit easier on the work front. Although I will have to work for a full day on Friday. If this works out I may get to have this shop here in Cowley instead of my current position in Oxford city centre. I will save £34 on bus fares as well as getting a little bit of exercise walking the 10 minutes into work.
Now my task is to look at the budget for food and see if I can make the grocery challenge work this month. I failed dismally on my March targets.!!:eek:

Time to disappear and see what emails etc I have and then check on the pudding I was trying out from the Grocery challenges sometime ago.
I have started pasting interesting bits n bobs into a word document.

Savvy_sewing

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Hi Mooloo

I did offer some help a few weeks ago and got a reply but didn't hear anymore from you.

I will try to explain how your HB should be worked out (sorry if I am teaching my mother to suck eggs!) This may be different is your council has already introduced LHA.

etc etc, I have deleted the rest of the quote or the post would be huge.
Hi EagerElephant, thankyou for the full post and all your explanations. I dug out the last letter from HB and sat with your quote and their paperwork. I have worked out roughly what my rent is going to be for me to pay now that I have returned to work. Unfortunately I feel very deflated with it all, as now that I am no longer on SSP and I am only on 16 hours a week, my wages have dropped from just over £13,000 to around £6,000.
I worked things out on the wage slip that I received this week, and it worked out that I will have a total income of £267.80 with allowances of £129.84 so as my rent is £1500 a month, £346.15 a week, I have worked out that I will now have to pay a rent of £90.13 a week. (When I was on SSP I paid £48.05)
My income will be £118.40 wages less what was SSP £75.40 = £43.00 a week more coming into the house. And now £52.08 a week more going out.
So I am worse off by £9.00 odd a week. Not to mention the difference on the council tax. I have yet to work that one out.
So I am not a happy bunny. With the withdrawal of the Social Services money not so long ago. I am now £200 a week down on what I was on at Christmas. (And I am now living in a hugely more expensive house, and all the bills are going to be a lot more, then in the flat). I am worried stupid that by accepting my grandchildren and children back home I have made myself vunerable, and I will be scraping the bottom of the Poor House all over again. The thought of struggling to get back to work, just doesnt seem to be worth the pain that I am going through to do the job.
I thought I was supposed to be better off working??????????

Well Its time for dinner. The last of the meat in the house. Sausages.!! Then I am not sure what I shall be able to budget for the housekeeping for us now.
Back to the drawing board me thinks!!

Seaxwyn

Deirdre Barlow is not such a bad look! My dad used to call her Sexy Specs.

(My own worst fear is that I look like Delia Smith.)

Sorry to hear of the blow of income dropping. That can't be right. Do your daughters get housing benefit also? They should surely be paying a fair share of the rent and bills.